Auto-update and WiX

by admin 24. March 2007 02:42

The end of my PhD is in sight and my post-PhD plans include the possibilty of some microISV action. So I need an auto-update plan for a WinForms app. I'm using WiX to deploy the app originally since the app includes fancy things like windows services, not just xcopy.

Basically I need it to grab a WiX generated patch file. Stop the app (after prompting the user) and prompt for admin credentials (if necessary) before starting the patch.

I've been looking around and I can't find any auto-update solutions I can use out of the box. So it looks like I'm going to have to write my own :( or at least adapt one of the current solutions.

Anybody got some better ideas?

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Comments (5) -

3/15/2008 9:43:25 AM #

Did you make any progress with wix and auto-update?  
cheers
ewart

ewart

3/25/2008 11:41:43 AM #

I had to roll my own solution but WiX v3 is coming along so it's worth checking out the WiX Clickthrough stuff.

Richard Mason

1/5/2010 9:53:01 PM #

Matt

Can you explain the approach you took for your auto-update solution?  Is there any useful source code that you're willing to share?

Thanks.

Matt

1/7/2010 3:38:24 AM #

Unfortunately the code is all weaved pretty tightly into RikPVR so I won't be releasing it. Basic approach was to set up an RSS feed describing the updates. This gets monitored by the app and offers new updates to the user.

The updates themselves are MSI files which get launched off as an upgrade. It supports the MSI patching model as well but so far I haven't used that due to its complexity.

I'd recommend checking out the Paint.NET blog (blog.getpaint.net/.../) - it has a good commentary on install and I seem to remember some talk about the update system sometime as well.

Richard Mason

1/7/2010 3:39:05 AM #

That previous url is - blog.getpaint.net/.../

Richard Mason

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